Essence Devouring Art

「Half a month ago.」

The Primordial Dao Wheels of his thirty clones had been utterly destroyed. He could only rely on the feedback from their autonomous cultivation.

If not for the superior quality of his main Dao Wheel, it would have been damaged in sync with the others.

’Without the Primordial Dao Wheels, my efficiency is a pale shadow of what it was. Plus, the Eye of Hell is almost at its limit. It’s high time I considered a change of scenery.’

Wu Dao’s thoughts churned.

This forbidden zone, the Star Ruins, was merely a small mud pit in the Border Wilderness of the Grand Cosmos. It was nothing to speak of and would soon lose its tempering effect.

Most importantly, the Primordial Dao Wheels were all destroyed.

He needed more and stronger Dao Wheels to keep up with his current cultivation needs and maintain his accelerated progress.

The Taiyi Emperor Star was an ideal destination.

Not only could it satisfy his cultivation needs, but there were also droves of high-quality believers waiting for him to "enlighten." It was necessary to move it up on his agenda.

With this in mind, Wu Dao dispatched all his clones—save for those dedicated to the Primordial Magnetic Main Path and Soul Cultivation and Transverse Cultivation—to repair the Star Hub.

He estimated that by the time the Star Hub was repaired, he would have reached the deepest part of the Eye of Hell. Then, he could leave and find a new "flame."

HUMMM—

After a brief pause to make arrangements, Wu Dao resumed rotating his Magnetic Field to bore deeper. Countless of his just-regenerated Primordial Magnetic Crystals cells were once again reduced to microscopic matter.

But by now, Wu Dao had long since evolved to adapt to this level of life-or-death danger and no longer took it seriously. At worst, his vision would go black for a moment before he broke free from the darkness and returned to his True Self.

The once-incomparably-dangerous Divine Image Heaven was now a place he could blow up for fun without any consequences.

「Several months later.」

「At the bottom of the Extreme Cold Abyss.」

HUMMM—

Thanks to the round-the-clock efforts of the thirty clones, the final magnetic meridian was connected.

The thousands of Star Maps upon the Heaven-Reaching Star Hub began to shine brilliantly. Invisible beams of light linked Heaven, Earth, and the Ten Directions, stabilizing the chaotic space-time field.

Faintly, the Star Hub established connections with one distant location after another.

’Truly divine craftsmanship.’

Wu Dao stood tall beneath the Star Hub, sensing it greedily devouring the vast power of the forbidden zone’s space-time field, and couldn’t help but marvel.

Creating and repairing were two completely different matters.

Even for him, in his current state, it was impossible to perceive even a ten-thousandth of the essence of the Star Hub’s magnificent power over space and time. The work he had done was merely a crude imitation.

If the Star Hub had been damaged any more, he would have had no way to restore it at all.

HUMMM—

His consciousness probed the Star Hub once more.

Immediately, the coordinates for one Star Realm after another appeared in his mind.

The furthest teleportation destination, as expected, was the core of the Jiaoxu Star Palace, which ruled over countless Star Realms in this quadrant.

After confirming the Star Hub was repaired, the thirty clones returned to his Main Body.

「In the deepest part of the Eye of Hell.」

"This is no fun at all!"

Wu Dao cracked his neck, feeling the Magnetic Field’s Power of Destruction, which now felt like a mere tickle. He was thoroughly bored.

He still preferred the wild, untamable Iron Blood Queen that could reduce him to microscopic particles with a single lash.

As for now...

...it was limp and utterly powerless.

There was no thrill in it at all.

"Scram, you useless thing."

Wu Dao waved his hand in disgust, swatting away the raging Magnetic Field Power that tried to "detain" him.

With a single step, he left the Eye of Hell—now a withered husk of its former self—without a backward glance and headed for the Star Hub.

At the same time, feeling the world-shaking surge of Power within his Dao Body, he opened his attribute panel with a thought, its data having skyrocketed—

[Physique: Sacred Spirit]

[Extraordinary: Essence Devouring·Heaven Opening 40/365+]

[Three-Phase Divine Punishment Fist (Fist Phase 10/33)+]

[Holy Spirit Transformation (Horizontal Refining Tenth Dao Gate, Human World Yang God (10/33)+]

[All Heaven Magnetic Divine Power: Primordial Magnetic Celestial Saber, Ten Directions Divine Slaughter, Primordial Magnetic Tribulation Finger, Celestial Essence Magnetic Burst Fist, Primordial Magnetic Celestial Prison Cage, Primordial Magnetic Demon Embryo, Infinite Magnetic Shock. (12/33)+]

[Holy Spirit Divine Techniques: One Origin, Ten Thousand Transformations - Dharma Aspect (11/33)+]

[Great All Heavens Divine Techniques: Immune to All Laws (11/33)+

Five Thunders Celestial Heart Technique, Heaven-Slaying Sword Drawing Technique, Armistice Disarmament, Great Thousand Seal, Dragon-breaking Skill, Celestial Will Four Symbols Fist... (11/33)+]

Creation Divine Techniques: Great Silence of All Heavens (10/33)+

Emperor Scripture: Thunder Emperor Scripture, Ten Thousand Solutions Emperor Scripture, Inference Celestial Emperor Scripture, Returning Abyss Sword Scripture, Luotian Sword Scripture, Qing Yu Life-Extinguishing Scripture (11/33)+

Divine Format: Primordial Lower True God (2/33)+

[Celestial Treasure: Bitter Dust Robe (Emperor’s Artifact 100%)

Celestial Treasure Advancement Ceremony: Suffering Dust Mortal Transformation.

Celestial Treasure Law: Concealing Celestial Secret, Cause and Effect Immunity.]

[Teleportation Points: 0]

Five months of arduous cultivation!

He had devoured a full forty Minor Circulations!

And within those circulations, the most difficult arts—Soul Cultivation and Transverse Cultivation, and the Great Silence of All Heavens Dharma Aspect—had also stepped into the Emperor Grade Tenth Heaven!

His Primordial Magnetic Power had undergone a massive, explosive increase.

If measured in units of All Heaven Dharma Aspects, that would be the rotational power of forty All Heaven Primordial Magnetic circulations.

At the same time, Wu Dao also noticed that the progress of the Essence Devouring’s Heaven Opening stage was revealing its upper limit. Just as he had predicted, it would reach perfection at three hundred sixty-five Grand Circulations.

’I’m just itching for some blind fool to show up right now.’

Feeling the vast, solidified Celestial Domains—layer upon layer—rumbling and revolving around the Primordial Magnetic Main Path within his physique, all contained within those forty Minor Circulations, a blazing desire for battle erupted from Wu Dao’s eyes.

After nearly a year of secluded, arduous cultivation, his hands were truly itching for a fight.

Forty circulations.

The rotational Primordial Magnetic Power generated by combining forty Dharma Aspects, each at or above the Emperor Grade’s Tenth Step, was far more than a simple sum of its parts.

Even Wu Dao himself couldn’t estimate just how strong he was now.

If he were to devour all three hundred sixty-five circulations, he couldn’t imagine how strong his Life Magnetic Field would become, or what kind of monster he would turn into.

’The Taiyi Emperor Star...’

However, the thought of his upcoming trip to the Taiyi Emperor Star caused Wu Dao to rein in the sense of lawlessness that had come with his explosive increase in power.

He had missed the optimal time to enter the Taiyi Emperor Star. By now, its universal laws had shifted to allow the entry of powers at the Grotto Heaven Level.

The Path of Transcendence.

The further one walked it, the wider the gaps between levels became.

Although his current cultivation progress was absurd, the Grotto Heavens Realm was, after all, a qualitative leap above him. Having never fought someone at that level, he could not afford to be complacent.

As for Dharma Aspects...

’Celestial Prides from All Heavens, gathered in one place... Tsk. Such high purity.’

Wu Dao’s consciousness gazed at the damaged Primordial Dao Wheels within his body, a look of greedy hunger surfacing in his eyes.

In just one short year, for him to have achieved so much... the contribution of the Primordial Dao Wheels was immeasurable.

Main Body, clones, and Primordial Dao Wheels.

They provided a threefold boost to his cultivation speed.

If he had possessed a Primordial Dao Wheel when he first arrived in this World, and unleashed 100% of his potential, he wouldn’t have needed two years at all.

Four months, at most.

He could have gone from a mere mortal to the Peak of Human Extremes. One could only imagine how monstrously overpowered the Primordial Dao Wheels were.

As for the attribute panel, Wu Dao glanced at the long string of zeros required to upgrade even a single technique and completely lost all interest in hunting Alien Species.

With that kind of time, wouldn’t it be better to just make a few more Primordial Dao Wheels?

He was no longer limited to creating just thirty clones a level below himself.

In the future, dozens, or even hundreds of clones, all equipped with Primordial Dao Wheels and cultivating a single technique—his cultivation speed would increase tenfold, even a hundredfold.

Of course, the future looked bright, but the prerequisite was to upgrade his Primordial Divine Format.

His current Divine Format rank was too pathetic.

It was only at the Emperor Grade Second Step.

And this thing wasn’t even tied to his personal Power.

If his Faith and Willpower were insufficient, it couldn’t be upgraded no matter how strong his True Self became.

Gathering believers to accumulate faith was too slow.

Wu Dao still preferred the second method—

Devour and Evolve!

The Taiyi Emperor Star was a must-go destination.

But before that, he needed to raise the level of his Divine Format first.

This was one of the reasons he had repaired the Star Hub.

The Star Hub contained tens of thousands of Star Realm coordinates, and many of those Star Realms were ruled by Overlords from the Venerable True God Teachings.

Those Dharma True Gods... were Wu Dao’s targets!

From the memories of his many believers, Wu Dao had already screened nearly a hundred True Gods who could be killed in a single strike and refined quickly.

The number, as it happened, was a perfect match for his clones.

With the Bitter Dust Robe bound to his very concept of self, he could send them out as a suicide squad to assassinate his targets without worrying about any repercussions.

"Emerge!"

「Before the Abyssal Star Hub.」

The flesh and bone on Wu Dao’s back bulged and swelled.

Once again playing the role of an ant queen, his soul and consciousness rapidly divided, producing—at his absolute limit—one hundred clones, each a full level below him in all aspects, at the Emperor Grade Ninth Step.

Creating so many clones at once pushed Wu Dao’s Divine Soul and consciousness to their division limit, leaving his origin somewhat weakened. While ravenously devouring Magnetic Field energy to recover, he controlled each of his clones to activate the Star Hub.

HUMMM—

Once the Star Hub activated, one Star Map after another began to shine with dazzling light.

A waterfall of starlight, carrying the power of the laws of order that warped space and time, cascaded down, submerging the clones one by one.

Within Wu Dao’s perception, he became a stream of light, shuttling at extreme speed through a tunnel-like scroll formed from the twisted starry sky of the Grand Cosmos. Dazzling stars were continuously flung behind him; in the span of a single thought, he had crossed an unknowable number of light-years.

He blinked, and when his eyes opened again to perceive the outside world, each of his clones had crossed space and time to descend into a completely unfamiliar Star Realm.

"Fellow Daoist, please don’t block the way."

A somewhat displeased voice sounded out.

With an indifferent expression, one of Wu Dao’s clones stepped off the altar.

Looking back and up, he saw that the Star Hub this clone had arrived at was located in the central plaza of this Star Realm’s capital city. People came and went freely, with no guards or restrictions in place.

The Star Hubs were ownerless.

According to the annals of the All Tribulations, they were built through the combined effort and resources of the Ten Thousand Races of All Heavens.

Anyone had the right to use them.

And no one dared to risk public outrage by monopolizing them.

Of course, during special circumstances, if the Overlord of a Star Hub’s region temporarily took control to dispatch troops, no one would object.

"Saint Monarch Guangping..."

After withdrawing his gaze, information about the Supreme God of this Star Realm’s Guangping Divine Sect surfaced in Wu Dao’s mind.

Then, he got his bearings,

and shot at extreme speed toward the majestic Divine Palace, wreathed in brilliant light and colorful clouds, within the Star Sea above the city.

「At the same moment.」

The rest of the clones also locked onto their targets.

「Within the Abyss of the Star Ruins in the Border Wilderness.」

Wu Dao had recovered. He activated the Star Hub once more, and with a flick of his fingers, he stirred the surrounding chaotic Magnetic Field.

VMMMM!

Starlight cascaded down like a waterfall.

The power of space-time’s order began to churn.

Wu Dao’s figure vanished from the Abyss as he began to teleport toward the Jiao Su Star Realm.

RUMBLE—

A moment after he left, the Abyss’s Magnetic Field erupted with the violence of a billion volcanoes, instantly severing the connection between the Star Hub and the spatio-temporal magnetic field.

One by one, the Star Maps on the Star Hub rapidly went dark. Not long after being repaired, it was damaged once more.

Once a Star Hub is damaged, the corresponding Star Maps within other connected Star Hubs also go dark, making it impossible for even a Great Power to trace the source.

Assassinating a hundred True Gods was a heaven-shaking crime. Even with the Bitter Dust Robe, he couldn’t afford to be careless or rely on a shred of luck.

To prevent anyone from tracking him through the Star Hub, he naturally had to destroy all traces.

That included the hundred clones.

A suicide squad was not just a figure of speech.